Live Review: Aimee Mann - Bord Gais Energy Theater 31st Jan 2013

Finishing a tour in Dublin with a gig in the wonderful surroundings of the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, with a superb backing band, performing a 'Best of'' set, taking audience requests, being 'Punch Drunk' and playing a Thin Lizzy cover, Aimee Mann should be really pleased and very proud of herself. It really was a quality gig from Aimee and her band.

Support act 'Ted Leo' began his set with an awful tune but improved and eventually won me over. Sounding like the cross between Hamill On Trial and Lloyd Cole, his songs had meaning and at times was able to make his electric guitar sounding lovely. Aimee performed two songs with Ted and they were super tunes. Ted's song 'The Gambler' in particular is a song I'd be very interested in hearing when released.

As expected a good few tracks performed from Aimee Mann were taken from her new album 'Charmer'. Current single 'Labrador' stood out along with 'Living A Lie' co-sung by Ted Leo. Past classics such as 'Lost in Space', 'Freeway', 'Save Me' and 'Invisible Ink' were all well received by the crowd. For me there were two clear highlights. Closing track 'Deathly' is such a great song and finished the gig on a high. The other highlight was a Thin Lizzy cover from the 1971 debut self-titled album called 'Honesty Is No Excuse' which sent shivers down my back. It was an incredible version of a classic song.

Here's footage of Aimee & band performing 'Honesty is no Excuse' from Cologne.

It was such a great pleasure to finally catch Aimee Mann live. I was hoping to hear a few of my favourite tracks but with seven studio albums under her belt it's always pot luck as to what goes on the setlist. She did play a number of tracks that the crowd requested and performed for a good two hours. It was excellent value for money and I'm looking forward to the next Aimee Mann gig in Dublin. Oh and she's nothing against Phil Collins ..... apparently!

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It's been in the news that 25 years ago Irish Summers got a bit more interesting with the arrival of Féile festivals. I was lucky enough to be a mid teen attender at Feile 1994 with great memories of dancing to Blur, the dangerous mosh pit of 'House of Pain' the rock and roll swooning of Primal Scream and perfect pop of Bjork.

There are a few funny clips from Feile on Youtube but we'll start with the line-ups!

The poster for the first Féile in 1990 was .....

In 1991 we had:

And in 1992 there was .....

There are currently no posters online for the Feiles of 1993 or the last one in Turles is 1994. Taken from Wikipedia here are a list of bands from each year: